Television Review: Daredevil (Season 2, 2016)
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a good example of how even the most successful cinema masters can risk overdoing the application of a single formula, so over time all those superhero films start to look indistinguishable each other. The television creators’ job, or rather Netflix’s, seems easier at first glance, considering that, instead of a new sequel or spin-off lasting two hours, they have to produce material of at least 13 hours. There are, however, reasons to believe that finding something original is much harder. This problem, among others, was faced by the creators of the second season of Daredevil, who at the beginning of 2016 had to somehow justify the expectations raised by the surprisingly high-quality first season and its spin-off in the form of Jessica Jones.
Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), a blind New York lawyer, is already established as Daredevil at the start of the second season, a masked avenger who at night, using his keen hearing, fighting skills, and other impressive abilities, tries to right wrongs and save the lives of his fellow citizens that he cannot in court. His triumph over the criminal empire of Wilson Fisk (Vincent d’Onofrio) is, however, short-lived, as the departure of the evil and all-powerful gangster boss to prison creates a power vacuum in the treacherous streets of Hell’s Kitchen that numerous other, often equally violent and ruthless "players" try to fill. One of them seems to be much more evil and violent than the others, or rather it seems that his campaign of mass and brutal liquidations of criminals has no other purpose than bloodshed. It is only when Murdock, together with his friend and law partner Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), gets involved in the case that it is revealed that behind it all is Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), a former Marine who, after the tragic death of his family in a drug deal shootout, decided to clean up New York from criminal scum in his own way. Murdock not only has to face someone who has taken Daredevil's vigilantism to another, much bloodier level, but also faces the ghosts of his own past in the form of the arrival of Elektra Natchios (Elodie Yung), his former girlfriend and martial arts master who seeks his help in fighting a secret society of ancient Japanese assassins.
The producers of the series were aware that the second season had to be different from the first, and this was helped by the fact that its creators, Drew Goddard and Steven S. DeKnight, were no longer available, and the job of leading was taken over by Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez. The difference in the series was most noticeable in that Daredevil no longer has one powerful arch-nemesis and super-villain with whom he has to enter an epic conflict for the heart and soul of New York, but instead faces characters who, each in their own way, represent alternative versions of himself. The best example of this is Frank Castle, whom comic book fans will easily recognise as Marvel's Punisher, and whom Jon Bernthal plays in a masterful way, leaving light-years behind the three actors who played the same character on the big screen before him. Bernthal's Punisher is a realistic character, who with his appearance, gestures, but above all his actions, clearly suggests how deep a traumatic disorder, but also awareness of the consequences, or that not everyone has to understand his actions. Things are good with the arrival of another legendary Marvel character – Elektra – who is portrayed as an apparently perfect partner for Daredevil, but whose beauty, intelligence, charm, and martial arts mastery also hide a deeply hidden and suppressed, but sometimes unstoppable tendency to kill. French actress Elodie Yung, who plays this character, is a real discovery not only because of her exotic appearance, but also because of her talent that includes both acting and hand-to-hand combat, making her performance much better than Jennifer Garner who played the same character in the film version. To the set of all these morally ambiguous characters, one can add Daredevil's old mentor Stick, who, unlike his relatively brief appearance in the first season, has a somewhat more significant role here and whose presence at the very end prevents the obligatory cliffhanger and "unexpected" twist from getting an unnecessary melodramatic dimension, or streching credibility. Always reliable character actor Scott Glen in the role of Stick shows that even in his old age he is able to "spice up" the content with his performance.
The rest of the cast, or Daredevil's company from the first season, has remained in the shadows. In this, Foggy Nelson, played by the excellent Henson, has fared better than Karen Page; his character no longer functions as a "comic relief" and Murdock/Daredevil's sidekick, but as an exceptionally capable lawyer and the protagonist's conscience. While the character of Karen Page had a few good scenes, especially those in which she tries to convert Frank Castle from his violent path, the writers were not inclined to her in the end – both because of the forced and doomed-to-fail romance with the protagonist, and because of her not entirely convincing transformation into a journalist. The second season of Daredevil is therefore somewhat inferior to the first, but it has retained enough quality to justify the third and, perhaps most importantly, be a quality link for new spin-offs and the introduction of new characters and series into the Netflix Marvel universe.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here
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